Late summer is one of my favorite times of year.
The hot, sweltering days are behind us (we hope!).
More importantly, the wild flowers in my garden are
finally showing off their color.
The hot, sweltering days are behind us (we hope!).
More importantly, the wild flowers in my garden are
finally showing off their color.
ANALYSIS / LOOKING BACK
August 2nd Election BY TRUTH WATCH
On August 2nd, 2022 voters turned down two General Obligation Bonds and a
Property Tax Levy Increase. The two General Obligation Bonds would have created $53.2 million dollars in debt for Raytown taxpayers. The third issue was a mill levy increase the city claimed had not been increased since 1978.
In January of 2021, the City Administrator signed a contract for over $21,000 to "educate" voters about GO bonds. In March, 2022, fourteen (14) months later the Board of Aldermen voted to put the GO bonds on the August ballot.
Combined with these dollars it appears the “YES” group outspent the “VOTE NO” group by at least a four to one margin.
The “VOTE NO” group worked diligently to provide facts to voters that the city conveniently left out. The “YES” group claimed the opposition was spewing lies, but never showed any proof of this claim. They only offered disparaging personal comments and personal attacks on Facebook.
The “YES” group seemed surprised that the State required a 57.2% yes vote to pass the Bonds. The State is wise to set this threshold. GO bonds effectively place a mortgage on the homes and personal property of residential and business taxpayers, payable through property taxes.
If the bond revenue falls short because of inflation, or even worse, a recession, the ballot language clearly states the City can increase taxes above their projections without additional voter approval by the taxpayers.
Winners and Losers . . .
One week before the election the “yes” group got nasty. A police report had to be filed because someone on the “yes” side was personally threatening a person on the “no” side.
The “YES” group consistently blocked people who asked legitimate questions on their Facebook groups. The “YES” group made up wild stories of trash being dumped in people’s yards in response to a political blitz by “VOTE NO” campaigners.
. . . and How they reacted to the Vote
The “VOTE NO” group won. All three taxes were defeated. Most notably, the levy increase was lost by a landslide . . . 64% no, 36% yes.
Actions speak louder than words. The landslide loss of the levy increase demonstrates a distrust of City Hall by Raytown voters.
The City had claimed “voters hadn’t increased the levy since 1978”. Instead, they acted as if they were working with 1978 dollars, which the “VOTE NO” group showed as not true.
At the August 16th City Council meeting city staff reported that Raytown will be the recipient of windfall profit due to inflation indexing by Jackson County of personal property tax values.
More clearly stated, the value of used cars has been increased by 24.5% by Jackson County. This results in a windfall of $1,216,625 (million dollars) in tax revenue for Raytown City Hall. Raytown Parks and Recreation will receive an additional $606,973 (thousand dollars) this year as well.
To be clear, the 24.5% increase in personal property tax on used cars will be paid by the car owners. The windfall tax will go to the City of Raytown. This will also inflate tax dollars paid to the School District, Library, Blind Pension Fund, and all other groups funded by tax levies.
This was not news to City Hall. Discussion with Jackson County had been going on for months.*
Why did City Hall not bring this up during the campaign? These higher tax rates on cars will hit homeowners and renters household budgets very hard this year.
The Last Word . . .
After the August 2nd election, a member of the No group stated, “It’s over, they lost, it’s time to move on.”
Former mayor Sue Frank said, “After talking to the last two mayors about Go Bonds, it was so sad to see the city maxed out what could be applied for. It’s unfortunate that all the money, time, effort, and angst could have been avoided if the city had made a reasonable request that would not cost some people their homes.”
What’s next?
Unhappy or disbelieving, Mayor Mike McDonough, in the space of one hour at the last City Council meeting, decided to call for a new election on November 8, adding two more Go bonds and a new sales tax measure.
The new GO bond is for $30,000,000 (million dollars) on a Transportation GO Bond and the same $7,200,000 (million dollars) for Storm Sewer repair and reconstruction.
The surprise and shock by people has been palpable. Jenette Gentry and Ryan Hoffman again expressed their belief that the tax package was still too high, advocating for a third to a half of what the city is asking.
There Is a Better Way…
Spokespersons for “Not the Time For this Tax” said they would stand down if the city offered a reasonable request by cutting the Transportation Bond in half. Reasonable requests by other Cities in the area have proved successful.
McDonough and his crew still went forward with high GO bonds and a completely different sales tax. They again are showing they place their wants above their constituents' needs, especially now when high inflation is hurting families.
Vote NO on all three taxes November 8.
*Jackson
County raised the tax valuation on used cars to make up for the loss of sales
tax revenue on new cars. Car lots remain empty of new model stock because of
a shortage of microchips used in new vehicles. Governments are able to correct
their cash shortage with the stroke of a pen. Renters and Homeowners in Raytown
do not have that luxury. Their only recourse is to pay the higher taxes.
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14 comments:
Re-read below.
Hits hard, hits home.
Concise, factual, common-sense and well-written. As always.
What say you, "YES" people?
Thank goodness that those draconian taxes didn't pass the first time around, and even more of reason for them to fail even more dramatically a second time.
"If the bond revenue falls short because of inflation, or even worse, a recession, the ballot language clearly states the City can increase taxes above their projections without additional voter approval by the taxpayers.
....................
At the August 16th City Council meeting city staff reported that Raytown will be the recipient of windfall profit due to inflation indexing by Jackson County of personal property tax values.
More clearly stated, the value of your used cars has been increased by 24.5% by Jackson County. This results in a windfall of $1,216,625 (million dollars) in tax revenue for Raytown City Hall. Raytown Parks and Recreation will receive an additional $606,973 (thousand dollars) this year as well.
To be clear, the 24.5% increase in personal property tax on used cars will be paid by the car owners. The windfall tax will go to the City of Raytown. This will also inflate tax dollars paid to the School District, Library, Blind Pension Fund, and all other groups funded by tax levies.
This was not news to City Hall. Discussion with Jackson County had been going on for months.
Why did City Hall not bring this up during the campaign? These higher tax rates on cars will hit homeowners and renters household budgets very hard this year."
"To be clear, the 24.5% increase in personal property tax on used cars will be paid by the car owners. The windfall tax will go to the City of Raytown...This was not news to City Hall. Discussion with Jackson County had been going on for months...Why did City Hall not bring this up during the campaign?"
WTG, Alderman W! Distribute. Disseminate.
ONE MILLION, TWO HUNDRED SIXTEEN THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS. (For starters.)
And what was someone saying about the citizens having trust issues with City Hall?
Who else saw channel 9 news story tonight about taxpayers of Johnson County KS.
It was about the citizens out raged because of taxes and the mil leave.
I am sure our great minds at city hall will claim this has nothing to do with Raytown.
Those of us who are free thinkers and actually understand how things work realize that if those same great minds at city hall get their way on their over priced bonds it will be our city hall over pack with agree people next year when properties are re-assessed and tax bills hit.
We need to pay attention to our neighbors even when in a different state and use their mishappenings as learning opportunities to protect our community from greedy, foolish and uneducated elected officials who don't care if they force us out a home.
I am Catholic and sent several donations to KS for "Yes" on 2.
I was not happy with the results as their laws are against my beliefs, but I accepted them.
I am embarrassed more that a few wouldn't accept the vote of the people than KS doesn't care about babies.
Now we have our Mayor and the board not accepting the vote of the people.
I agreed on August 2nd and voted "yes" to fix our streets, but I don't believe in not accepting the vote of the people.
I now not only am a "no" vote I am now telling my neighbors and friends to vote "no" as the mayor needs to accept the August vote.
I understand Ryan still will not answer questions.
I have read several weeks posting of this ongoing refusal and others complaining he has something to hide.
I have had the opportunity to meet Ryan and I know it is just my opinion, but I don't think he is hiding anything.
I actually believe that he doesn't understand anything, which is not only why he is unable to take questions. It also speaks to him not understanding how upset the people of Raytown are that he promised the tax on online purchases would fix our streets, but here he is at the next election wanting more handouts, but cannot explain when any specific streets will be fixed.
If you don't know the answer go and get it.
If you don't know how to treat others just resign.
The Use tax is collected by the State, and they sure are slow in returning our money to us!!! The larger payments won’t come until mid 2023 for the 2022 holiday season…. Slow…. Real slow….
"I actually believe that he doesn't understand anything, which is not only why he is unable to take questions."
I believe that his equally vocal compadre had even far less of a clue.
He was asked multiple specific questions about the taxes online over an extended period of time from the citizens. His one and only reply? It was concerningly mechanistic: "Go to oneraytown.com'.
" Go to oneraytown.com."
"Go to oneraytown.com."
"Go to oneraytown.com."
Problem was, there really wasn't any material on that website that even remotely addressed the citizen's specific question, if I recall correctly.
I don't think that this individual was directing anyone to that website because they were too inconvenienced to answer individual questions. I believe that if they knew the answers, they wouldn't have had any problem whatsoever taking the time to respond to each query. Instead, it was quite obvious, at least to me, that they *couldn't* answer because it was likely that they didn't fully comprehend the material.
And hopefully the citizens picked up on the disturbing dearth of of content and almost complete lack of a cogent argument on that poorly-executed "oneraytown.com" website. If that website was indicative of the city's level of project management skills, everyone needs to run straight for the hills.
(A grossly oversized, smiling rendering of a red import with a barely legible "oneraytown.com" on the bumper? Are you kidding me? )
And! Apparently those who manage the city weren't even capable of producing even so much as a basic online argument and website themselves, am I correct?! They actually PAID someone to do the work FOR them....and look at the results! (Actually, you can't, because they pulled the plug on the original content.) Someone actually must have said "This looks GREAT! Write the check!"
"I need money, because stuff, it be falling apart..."
Really?
I don't care if the City is asking for a "reduced number" -this- time around. The fact is is that they have demonstrated, through their words and actions, that they don't care, won't listen, and if they do succeed in getting their hands on a big cash payout, any results will likely be mismanaged, in my opinion. I'm not implying that anyone is dishonest, rather that they're grossly inexperienced and/or borderline incapable, in my opinion.
And I shudder when I realize that the citizens and businesses would have been and potentially still will be responsible for paying back potentially poorly or inadequately-distributed money for years to come.
As so many others that have come before me have already said:
"PAY ATTENTION!"
You don't need anyone else's opinion.
Examine what is in front of you. Look at what *isn't* there.
This city can continue to catastrophize and to forecast doom and gloom all they wish, however most of us will not be swayed.
City, provide us with a SPECIFIC list of your needed projects. Rank them by priority.
One by one, let's knock a few of them down. Perform. Let's see what you're truly capable of first.
BELTON: $21,000,000 MILLION DOLLARS
RAYMORE: $23,500,000 MILLION DOLLARS
WARRENSBURG: $5,000,000 MILLION DOLLARS
LIBERTY : $6,570,000 MILLION DOLLARS
GRANDVIEW: $12,400,000 MILLION DOLLARS
-----------
RAYTOWN: $37,200,000 MILLION DOLLARS
Raytown, in relation to the aforementioned cities, please explain why you need 37.2 million dollars.
Unfortunately, I doubt that even they can actually answer the question, and they've already proven time and time again that they don't respect the citizens enough to even respond.
They expect us to remain silent, proceed in a single file line, in lockstep, to the nearest voting station and to comply.
Proceeding to the nearest voting station To vote NO.
It's simple. It's a shell game, The Mayor has made no secret about how his overwork staff needs to be paid more. This money will be wasted just like it was from the Public Safety Tax that was passed years ago. No one trusts this administration, period.
Read on one of Raytown's Facebook pages a comment about how if we do not pass this tax in November that we can expect to see it on the ballot next April when the city holds its elections. That should be an interesting election. The Mayor and one half of the Board is up for re-election in April. Even they are not so stupid as to try that maneuver.
I think the comment was on Raytown Unhinged (or something like that). I cannot speak for others but I do know I WILL NOT BE BULLIED by these rants of what reads like they were written by 7th graders in middle school.
Stay Strong Raytown. Turn these over-priced bond proposals down.
Read the story in today's publication. See that other cities, the same size and population as Raytown, are being reasonable in their requests for our tax dollars.
Enough is enough! VOTE NO ON NOVEMBER 8TH.
BELTON: $21,000,000 MILLION DOLLARS
RAYMORE: $23,500,000 MILLION DOLLARS
WARRENSBURG: $5,000,000 MILLION DOLLARS
LIBERTY : $6,570,000 MILLION DOLLARS
GRANDVIEW: $12,400,000 MILLION DOLLARS
-----------
RAYTOWN: $37,200,000 MILLION DOLLARS
Just like a drug addict racing for their next fix our city elected officials on August the 16th rushed through a ballot issue for a 3% tax on marijuana.
If these great minds would slow down instead of trying to take every dollar from us they cannot pass a tax on something that is not illegal in MO.
This opps forced a special meeting to remove the question from the Nov 8th ballot, however they didn't remove the other two tax questions. You know the ones they refuse to accept the will of the voters.
This behavior proves beyond a doubt that are board of aldermen:
1.) do not know how to manage money or we would not have anything city related on the November 8th ballot.
2.) will do anything to get their hands on our money.
3.) are uneducated andwill not takethe the time to reach things before acting.
This again in not the leadership of adults, but that of self serving children on a playground fight over who is king of the playground.
I don't know about, but I don't reward my kids for unacceptable behavior; I put them in time out and assign actual life lessons research and projects so they never make the same mistake twice and learn acting a fool will come with punishment.
The voters in Raytown said no. Their decision was made on August 2, 2022. Those who believe they can insult and bully their way to a decision they did not attain in August are wrong to try and force people in Raytown to create taxes they cannot afford to pay.
There is a reason other area cities asked voters for only half of what Raytown is asking. They are aware we are in tough economic times. They have compassion for the people they deserve.
In Raytown the voters have had a steady stream of snarky remarks and an attitude that is unbelievable. Voters handed a loss to a city hall that has become out of touch with those they pretend to represent.
Stay strong. Urge your friends and neighbors to vote no on the unreasonable bond package the city is trying to force on them.
"Has the "Rock" woman from Independence ever moved back to Raytown. I ask as she keeps embarrassing herself and those of us in Independence from all her foolish and unfactual statements on Unleashed. " No, she's still an Independite, however she clings, steadfast, to her "Daughter of Raytown" heritage. (Like a zillion of the rest of us.) She really only comes out from under her "rock" during election time now, amped for continuous confrontation in the "I know what I am but what are you?" sweepstakes. Superb discourse and analysis over there at Unglued from the same handful, as always. It's all too sad and worn down to a nub to even be funny anymore over at Facebookland, really.
THE SALES TAX FOR MARIJUANA WAS A "PLOY" SO THAT COULD ADD THE PROPERTY TAX TO AGENDA.
When did the BOA (as a group) direct staff on this ordinance? A single alderperson cannot direct staff its has to come from the Group. I do not recall any direction given to staff in the last six months as to "work on this item" They are breaking their own rules again.
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